UCLA’s Norman Powell a slam dunk in San Diego

UCLA guard Norman Powell shoots during practice at the NCAA college basketball tournament Thursday, March 20, 2014, in San Diego. UCLA faces Tulsa in a second-round game on Friday. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)

SAN DIEGO — This was just a workout for UCLA, but Norman Powell decided to give a quick crowd pleaser for a few fans on the eve of the Bruins’ debut in this year’s NCAA Tournament.

Powell, a junior guard, threw down a windwmill dunk at Viejas Arena and a few fans in the first-row seats oooohed and ahhhhhed.

What folks didn’t see earlier in the day was a halfcourt shot Powell made in a practice at the University of San Diego. UCLA had a camera rolling, so that shot was making the rounds on the Internet.

There’s something about Powell and this city. He’s lived it, and loved it.

Fourth-seed UCLA opens the NCAA Tournament against No. 13 seed Tulsa on Friday, and imagine if Powell had the chance to dunk on this grand stage. Powell started those kind of jaw-dropping dunks about 6½ miles from here at Lincoln High School.

Lincoln High coach Jason Bryant — who coached at Van Nuys High before taking the job here — remembers the first time he knew Powell had hops.

“We were in the weight room, and he was waiting on a machine,” Bryant said. “He vertically jumped up and his head pierced through (the tiles on the ceiling). I thought, ‘wow.’ I’d never seen that before. That was really athletic.”

Powell has been showcasing his dunks and aggressiveness in taking the ball to the basket, something he couldn’t do much in Ben Howland’s system, all season. UCLA coach Steve Alford told him he wanted him to do just that in their first meeting after Alford landed the job.

“He said this would be my breakout year,” Powell recalled. “He wanted me to get to the rim and showcase my athletic ability.”

Done and done.

Powell has started all 34 games and averages 11.3 points. He has a 53 percent field goal percentage, which is best among UCLA’s starters.

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UCLA upset Arizona to win the Pac-12 Tournament, moving the Bruins up to a No. 4 seed and an advantage playing in Powell’s backyard. He was a hit on selection Sunday.

Powell has never played in a game here on the campus of San Diego State, as all those CIF championship games were at Jenny Craig Pavilion.

Lincoln High has a longstanding tradition being a football school since it has produced Marcus Allen and Terrell Davis. Powell has met them both, and Allen donated shootaround jerseys for the team for its state championship in 2010. Powell was captain of that team.

Basketball has a niche there and has produced former NBA players Dominic McGuire and Mark Sanford.

When Powell decided to go to school at Lincoln, it was just after the school had been leveled and rebuilt. The school lost many athletes, but Powell was game for a rebuilding effort.

“I feel some people are down on players (from San Diego), but we’re showing them we have players and players in the (NBA),” Powell said.

And Powell comes back here and works out in the gym at Lincoln High. He’s a role model who can be seen and heard.

Powell said his family and friends will make up a fan club of about 30 or 40 people. His mom, Sharon Powell, will be in attendance. She’s a social worker in the city and works with pregnant teens, Norman Powell said. Bryant will be here, too.

Unfortunately for Powell, the man who introduced him to basketball, his uncle, Raymond Edwards, died from cancer when Powell was in high school.

Powell has a large tattoo on his left arm, a basketball with the inscription “hard work” and “Raymond Edwards, RIP.” “The tattoo is dedicated to my uncle because he always told me hard work pays off,” Powell said. “He died when I was in high school and that was a hard time for me. I dedicated the tattoo to remind me of what I’m doing and how hard I have to work.”

He didn’t always have that mindset.

“When he was a freshman, I think he thought he was a little better than he was,” Bryant said. “I don’t think he worked as hard as we wanted him to work. He didn’t understand what it took to be a great player. I think he just thought he could play and just be OK.

“He had some work to do in terms of his basketball ability and more about his attitude about basketball. That summer, as an arriving sophomore, he did just that and improved his attitude and worked harder.”

And now he can show how that’s paid off in his hometown, which should give him a unique kind of swagger.

Powell’s two older sisters will be here. One has two young children who try to dunk like their uncle on a mini-basketball hoop, of course.

“My sister sent me a video of them dunking and trying to yell like I do afterward,” Powell said with a smile while showing his signature flexing move they imitated.

Powell didn’t start dunking until he was a junior. He had his first dunk in an AAU game.

“It was a 360 on a fastbreak,” Powell said. “I was about 17. After the game, everyone was talking about it.”

Just like all the talk after he posterized Oregon’s Ricard Amardi in Eugene in January.

Friday’s NCAA Tournament game doesn’t need one of those monster dunks to make it any sweeter for Powell. Just playing in San Diego should do the trick.